Her

Chapter-14

When he looked around him, everything was gone. The room was empty and silent. Suddenly, he saw that he was standing outside the house. Everything around him seemed dark and lifeless, the sky was clouded and the air felt chilly. Having no other option, he walked to the front door and opened it. As he stepped inside the house, his surroundings changed in the blink of an eye. He was at the exact same spot in front of the house.

The atmosphere was a bit darker, but he still continued to walk towards the front door. He opened it and stepped inside to find the same thing happening to him again and again. Seth felt as if reality was being distorted, the anxiety and confusion were shutting his mind down as he kept going through the door and coming out again and continuing the cycle.

He was losing his mind, losing control of himself. He wasn't able to stop himself from doing it again and again, like a machine designed to do only a single thing, walk. He felt himself on the verge of losing his consciousness but he forced himself to move out of his trance-like state.

"N- No... Not gonna give up. Not gonna give up." He whispered to himself, "Remember, this isn't real.... This isn't real!" He shouted.

The clouds thundered and it started to rain. Seth's mind was getting exhausted and he thought he'd fall unconscious on the ground. He slowly walked back towards the door and opened it, taking a deep breath, he stepped into the house. Nothing happened this time.

He looked around but couldn't see much because the only sources of light were the door that he opened and the subtle, dim light coming through the windows. As he walked a little further the door closed behind him and he was surrounded by profound darkness. Shivers ran up his spine as he felt the atmosphere getting colder.

"They're here..." He heard the faint whisper of the girl, "They're gonna get you. I'm gonna get you..." She said in a seemingly happy tone.

Seth could hear whispers all around him. All of them seemed like intangible, garbled words. He wandered around in the darkness as the whispers got louder and louder, his mind was trying to understand the whole situation but confusion and exhaustion blurred his thinking process.

Suddenly, the whispers stopped and Seth saw that he was standing in the big hall, everything was as dark as the rest of the house. He could vaguely make out the outlines of the large table, the neatly arranged chairs and the huge paintings on the wall.

The windows were the only way for light to enter the hall, this made the ambience more eerie and frightening. Seth looked at the water droplets sliding down the window as he calmly walked towards it. He stood before a window and as he was about to touch it, a deafening screech filled the air and all the windows shattered. Shards of glass pierced his hands as he put them up in defence and screamed in pain.

Seth used his bloodied hands to cover his ears, he saw everything in the hall levitating up in the air. He started hearing the whispers again even though he had covered his ears, it seemed as though the whispers were inside his mind. Everything was hurting him, physically and mentally. He closed his eyes in a hope that everything will be okay.

A few minutes later, he realised that everything had stopped and opened his eyes. He was back in the room where the girl killed her mother. Though he was hurt, he managed to stand up. He saw that at the corner opposite to him, was the girl in the wheelchair. She slowly raised her hand and pointed at him.

"They want you..." Seth heard her say, her voice didn't seem like that of a child.

Seth searched for anything to use as a weapon and found his knife in his pocket. He didn't learn from the last time that the idea was useless. The girl shouted out some garbled words and everything started shaking, a part of the roof broke off and the rain started falling heavily inside the room, half of a wall broke and fell on him. Seth fell down and hit his head on the floor. Unable to handle it anymore, he shakily got back on his feet, ran towards her and used the knife to stab her in the shoulder.

The girl screamed in pain and Seth as thrown back, away from her. Seth fell on the floor but quickly collected himself and looked at his knife.

"I hurt her. I'm... in the spirit realm." Seth realised as he looked at his now blood-stained knife.

He got up again, shouted and tried to run towards the girl but she raised her hand and Seth felt something powerful stop him. The girl moved her other hand and Seth saw his knife-wielding hand slowly moving towards his chest. He used all his might to oppose this force, but it was too strong. Seth started feeling weak as the knife kept slowly coming near his chest. He couldn't give up then, he had come too far to die. He fought too hard, but finally, exhaustion overcame him.

He saw the knife piercing through his skin and fell down.